ABSTRACT
In THE PERIOD that extended from the ascent to royal pow er o f L ouis-P hilippe in 1830 to the dem ise o f Louis N a p o leon ’s Second Em pire in 1870, the p opu lation o f Paris was served by no fewer than three, and often even four, opera houses. T h e O pera, O pera-C om ique and T h eatre-Italien each rode the crest o f a m ore or less venerable tradition and were propped up by governm ent subsidy; because o f this, fledglin g operatic enterprises faced a form idable challenge to rem ain solvent. A n attem pt by A ntenor Joly to set up a fourth house in 1838 collapsed after two years. A d olphe A d am ’s O pera-N ational had an even shorter life span in 184 7-8 . It was revived in 1851, was soon renam ed the T heatre-L yrique and not only proved hardier by surviving until 1870 but by 1863 had also gain ed enough support from the political establishm ent to ben efit from an annual subsidy (at the expense o f the T h eatre-Ita lien as it turned out).
